At J & R Care Ltd we specialise caring for young people with behavioural and emotional difficulties, and this can have extra demands on care professionals and teaching staff.

How to engage with young people of the more challenging persuasion is beyond the scope of this article – because that is for expert training sessions, experience of care professionals and knowledge accumulated within text books.

In this article we are looking at staff coping mechanisms when staff finish their shifts.

Backup

Preparing for downtime requires leaving the home when proper reports have been written. Accurate and thorough record keeping in a securely accessible and straightforward manner is crucially important in many ways, not least because because it ensures that little or nothing is left behind to amass in the minds of busy care professionals.

Full reporting in this manner helps ensure staff can go home at the end of their shift, satisfied that everything is available for all concerned to read.

Downtime

When staff return to their families though, how do they unwind and relax?

While wine with an evening meal was mentioned by some as a great way to relax and alleviate stress at the end of a busy day, everyone realises that alcohol dependency is not a healthy auto-response to daily stress.

Amongst the favoured ways to enjoy downtime is listening to music, gaming, cooking or exercise. Specifically, eyeball exercise – i.e. movies, TV, Netflix, etc.

Physical exercise would of course be preferable to sitting on the sofa, but too often tiredness is the reason not to put jogging running shoes, or family commitments take priority, or there are a multitude of household chores to do.

There is however another path leading away from stress.